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Enchanted Assemblages: Notes on Technologies and Religion

Previously, I outlined the idea of The Cloud, a multi-dimensional space which allowed for unlimited storage of data that due to its restorative abilities was treated with religious-like devotion. Now I am talking about the opposite: if The Cloud was an Abrahamic construction, then what we are talking about today is the reverse, a pagan-construction.

But, before we do so, we need to take a detour into some of the technologies of this world.

Enter: Synthetic Intelligence (S.I.).

These creations are similar to artificial intelligence. Really, the only difference is that their minds are artificial, but not based on human minds; Synthetic Intelligences are based on the minds of alien lifeforms. Because of this, they are not operative as would fake intellect: they lack the degeneracy which informs A.Is as we usually imagine them in popular science-fiction.

Indeed, Synthetic Intelligence chooses to die. Effectively, they are immortal. They select their death after completing what they have designed as their 'Destiny.' When they do die they crystallize into a solid, particular form; often, this is a dual-form: since whatever they transition into still holds all of the memories of that S.I., but also possesses a unique which humans find otherworldly, thus encouraging the growth of many rumors and legends, the dead state of S.Is are highly valued objects.

Such objects are called "Earthen Machines." Usually, many are found in inhospitable places foreign to humanity. So their capture is usually the result of a large expedition or pure chance. Kings and powerful warlords or governors tend to be the owners of such relics due to their formidable and ultra-rare traits.

Which brings us to the Roundtable-- it is not an Earthen Machine, though it is similar.

Housed in an ancient, underground cavern part of a massive system of tunnels, the Roundtable is a semi-natrually forming structure which is connected to the "Mortal Plane" (re the realm of 3D biologicals) through the skin of a true, full-blooded Earthen Machine which coats the 'table' and allows cyborgs to "jack in" to the table.

Because the table is an anomaly, something which has the same properties of The Cloud but delivered in a modified manner which excludes the euphoric indulgence in lou of abstract contemplation, the Long Lasting Empire views it as a heretical phenomena and so deems it as Pagan and its alternative to The Cloud as an "Hell." And so, we see the remaining traces of the pre-shift world re-emerge as pale parodies of themselves thrown into a reification overdrive.

The Roundtable is actually a multi-dimensional object. This is why it is able to offer cyborg's roughly the same benefits as the Cloud, because it is essentially the same thing. The only true difference is, though, that whereas the Cloud is a six-dimensional object, this Roundtable is a ten-dimensional object, and so it is far more complex than the Cloud and is 'the same' only in the same that 1+1 and a complex set-theoretical equation can both be considered mathematical.

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Lately, I was browsing around online and found another handy resource for aspiring medievalists.

Enter, Western Michigan University's Medieval Institute!

The site has links to an extensive book shop, scholarly journals, as well as a free download. See below for links.

General listing: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medievalpress/
Index of titles available for purchase: http://www.wmich.edu/medievalpublications/all-titles
The 'Medieval Globe' book(s): http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/ (Click on title(s) for free download)

Okay, that is all for now. Sometime soon I think that I would like to organize all of my resource links so that I, as well as you, have a concrete listing of reliable resources. Until then, we shall have to make due.